Instead of focusing on putting criminals away or taking away the guns they are prohibited from having, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Johnson (now "suddenly" embattled) continues to blame guns, and in a maneuver which I think is clear grandstanding, is now seeking help from the Nation of Islam-affiliated Millions More March organization. (Grandstanding works, for the AP story was linked by Drudge today.) If you go to the MMM website, you'll see pictures of local demagogue Michael Coard, who has threatened to sue the NRA. He also tried but failed to intimidate a close friend of mine, whose crime (in Coard's view) was simply that he dared to speak out publicly against the transformation of the Independence Mall into what he calls "Slavery Mall." Quite shamefully in my opinion, the federal government yielded to Coard's tactics. From Coard's bio at the MMM site:

As an activist, he is a founding member of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) that, through unyielding protests, persuaded the federal government to finally agree to have a historic memorial built to honor the enslaved African descendants held in bondage by George Washington at America's first "White House," which was located in Philadelphia at the current site of the new Liberty Bell Center.

Back to today, the Inquirer has a piece on Commissioner Johnson's plan, titled Wanted: 10,000 men to stop violence, and despite the fact that Philadelphia's problem is overwhelmingly one of criminals -- who are not allowed to have guns -- shooting each other, the words "crime" and "criminal" do not even appear.

What fascinates and suprises me is not that NOI and its affiliates believe marching will stop criminals from shooting each other, but that Commissioner Johnson would grandstand this way instead of simply focusing on what he's supposed to do, which is run a police department. The reason for a police department is to solve crimes, make arrests, and assist in criminal prosecutions.

It's hard not to notice another article -- "Joining forces in fighting violence" -- on the Inquirer's front page. The Pennsylvania State Police are being deployed to help the Philadelphia police, who are fed up with Commissioner Johnson:

The number of troopers involved in the operation was not disclosed, nor were the specific areas where they would be deployed. The troopers will ride with city Highway Patrol officers in marked state police cars.

The police union president, Bob Eddis, said the move reflected "incompetence in management" and called for Johnson to step down or be replaced.

"Bringing in outside help is a slap in the face to our officers," Eddis said. "The commissioner should be deploying his personnel differently."

Johnson, who had resisted calling in the state police or National Guard to back up city police, said yesterday that the initiative had been in the works for several months.

"We need them, we appreciate them, we're glad to have them," Johnson said of the troopers.

Jack Lewis, the state police spokesman, said Gov. Rendell initially proposed that the state police look at ways to help Philadelphia, and that the program came together this week with funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Johnson, for his part, sounds a tad defensive:

Johnson, standing with his own commanders and officials from the state police and governor's office, said the program did not signal a state police takeover or a crime emergency in the city.

"They didn't say, 'We want to come in there and start patrolling your streets,' " Johnson said. "What they basically said is, 'We want to come in there and work with you, let's work as partners.' "

For starters, there have been many calls for him to go, and for many years. Why, they have not been reported in the Inquirer, I do not know.

Johnson has been repeatedly described as "bulletproof" but according to this police oriented web site, a lot of cops have long believed he should have resigned. From the story, "Bulletproof or not,'it's time for Sylvester Johnson to go', BY Jill Porter":

There are cops and former cops, public officials and former public officials who think, as I do - though they refuse to say so on the record - that it's time for him to go.

They say he hasn't adapted to a smaller police force by restructuring and redeploying personnel - reducing special details, for instance, and eliminating administrative jobs - to get the most street presence he can.

They say he's failed to devise a comprehensive strategy to deal with soaring gun crimes, and is "out of ideas."

They say he is too nice to make tough decisions.

They say he's too compliant and "[Mayor John] Street is running the show."

And they agree that his public profile has been defeatist and defensive.

"I don't believe that law enforcement is ever going to change the quality of life," Johnson told the Inquirer last week.

That's hardly the bold, aggressive message I want to hear from the man in charge of public safety in my town.

Not to mention that there are whole neighborhoods in this city whose residents don't seem to trust the Police Department to keep them safe.

They apparently don't believe police can protect them from the ruthless druglords who rule their streets; they refuse to cooperate when they witness a shooting or a murder.

That can hardly be considered a vote of confidence in Johnson.

Sure, Johnson is hamstrung in his efforts to battle crime - by inadequate numbers of police, by an archaic department structure, by needing to answer to a mayor and managing director who have their own ideas.

And, yes, guns are an unbelievable problem here. Shooting someone has become the resolution of first resort for far too many people.

But if the police commissioner can't rally the citizens with a bold, can-do message, inspiring confidence that the problem can and will be solved, then we risk being overtaken by the crisis.

"If the city gets a reputation as being unsafe, we're through," said Philadelphia magazine editor Larry Platt, who also called for Johnson to step down in his magazine column.

"Say goodbye to the restaurant boom. Say goodbye to the condo boom."

It may be wishful thinking in the waning days of an administration to urge a change in leadership in the Police Department. Who would want the job?

But it needs to be said, no matter how nice a man Sylvester Johnson is:

It's time for invigorated leadership, new vision, new energy.

It's time for him to go.

As a blogger I'm free to speak my mind, but the pragmatic thinker in me is forced to recognize that the Inquirer is between a rock and a hard place. They have a duty to report the news fearlessly. But if the owners know that certain news will be bad for the city, the pressure not to report it (or "downplay it") must be enormous.

Hell, there are a lot of things I don't say in this blog. In fact, I don't especially writing negative things about a public figure who by all accounts is a decent man. I think his position on guns stinks, but so what? Philadelphia's kneejerk support of gun control is intractable and unchangeable. As I've pointed out, supporting the right to keep and bear arms is a fringe idea around here, and the situation reminds me of the "Parliament of Clocks." So, it would be delusional to think that getting rid of Johnson would change this thinking in any way.

As to why Philadelphia is stuck with Johnson, local bloggers like Attytood and Phillyblog have sounded off, and the Free Republic has preserved another Jill Porter piece -- "WHAT DID he know and when did he know it?" -- with a fascinating theory of what might make Johnson so uniquely untouchable: he may have ensured Mayor Street's reelection following the discovery of the FBI bug which had been planted to listen to telephone conversations between city officials and Imam Shamsud-din Ali in a corruption probe. Philadelphia Weekly discussed Johnson's possible involvement in uncovering the bug. In the paradoxical world of Philadelphia politics, the FBI bug led to Mayor Street's reelection, for the bug was successfully spun as Mayor Street being a victim of Bush and FBI "racism." (For more background on the bug, its original discovery, and the successful exploitation of the race angle, see my posts from 2004.)

Some say that Johnson's staying power stems from his ability to play politics. This was discussed in Mark McDonald's "bullletproof" piece from last summer's PhillyNews:

PHILADELPHIA has been in crisis over gun violence and a rising homicide rate for well over two years.

Remember that 10-year-old Faheem Thomas-Childs was shot to death in front of his school in February 2004 and that the murder rate in 2003 was 21 percent higher than the year before.

And yet through it all, including last year's 15 percent increase in homicides, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, the likable, soft-spoken, ever-accessible cop, remains firmly secure in his job.

Inside the Street administration, there's no stomach for chucking Johnson.

In the political arena and among neighborhood groups, there are no calls for Johnson's ouster.

No public official is saying it's time for new management with fresh ideas. In short, Johnson is politically bulletproof.

Even retirement is a nonstarter.

[...]

As one close observer noted of Johnson's relationship with a mayor in the twilight of his term: "At this point, I'd say they are married to each other. Sylvester can't leave now with the homicide rate like this and allow his legacy to be defined in those terms."

A second source close to both men said: "Sylvester is really the bulletproof vest for the mayor. As long as Sylvester is out there, you have to go through him to get to the mayor."

[...]

Having a fine-tuned political sensibility has served Johnson well.

Jannie Blackwell, City Council majority leader, said, "Not only is Sylvester bulletproof now, but I've talked to many of those who want to run for mayor and they say what I say: 'If I was running for mayor, I'd keep him in office.' People know he's accessible and a man of his word."

Even a sometime critic like Councilman Frank Rizzo says Johnson is safe in his job because of his courting of neighborhood groups.

"He's a survivor because he comes across so well at community meetings. He works hard and shows up at the right places," he said. "It's tough to take on someone who has been doing so well serving your needs."

Pick the worst Commissioner in recent times

Sylvester Johnson [ 53 ] [49.53%]
John Timoney [ 5 ] [4.67%]
Richard Neal [ 31 ] [28.97%]
Willie Williams [ 9 ] [8.41%]
Kevin Tucker [ 2 ] [1.87%]
Gregore Sambor [ 1 ] [0.93%]
Morton Solomon [ 4 ] [3.74%]
Joseph O'Neil [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Frank Rizzo [ 2 ] [1.87%]

The Philadelphia City Paper discussed speculation about Johnson's possible role in letting Mayor Street know about the notorious bug (which had been installed to intercept calls between the Philadelphia city officials and Imam Ali, convicted now in prison). It's a bit unsettling to read about the connections between black Muslim gangsters and City Hall (especially in light of today's news), but here's what the City Paper reported:

A day after The Bug's discovery, Ali's home and Keystone Information & Financial Services' office were raided. The Mt. Airy building housing Ali's collection agency is owned by his wife Faridah Ali. (Ironically, Keystone is supposed to go after tax delinquents but Faridah Ali owes the city more than $9,000 in back taxes on the building, records state.)

In January 2001, police arrested Faridah Ali's son, Azeem Spicer, after allegedly finding a semi-automatic pistol and $30,000 worth of grass in his apartment, located above the collection agency. (Though Spicer walked, sources claim the FBI is still investigating. Fox broke a story claiming the FBI is investigating whether the Spicer case was fixed.)

Until 1984, Shamsud-din Ali's name was Clarence Fowler. In 1972, Fowler was convicted of murdering a Baptist minister in North Philly and served five years before his sentence was overturned on a technicality. While in prison, he was part of the Fruit of Islam, a Black Muslim paramilitary force which used violence to enforce its will, sources say. (Ali and his wife refused comment when Underworld visited their Elkins Park home last week.)

Organized-crime files show police believed Fowler controlled Black Muslim prisoners, including some leaders of the ultra-violent Black Mafia. Former Philly cop turned professor and author of Philadelphia's Black Mafia Sean Patrick Griffin says, Authorities alleged that Fowler, a.k.a. Ali, was the one to go see if you were going to prison he could make sure you would not be harmed once you got into prison.

In 1987, cops followed Steve Traitz, then boss of the Roofers Union, to Ali's West Philly mosque where police sources say he went to arrange protection for fellow roofers facing prison.

Sources claim black gangsters have frequented the mosque and that Ali has maintained connections to Muslim prison gangs. Though police admit they don't know whether he still maintains contact with prison gangs, recently retired organized-crime investigators say that in the early '90s, the organized-crime squad was ordered to release files to an all-black team of police investigators. It was thought that African Americans could move more easily in those neighborhoods, gain the trust and get informers and follow what was happening in black organized crime in this city, one says.

Several police sources say that plan didn't pan out.

The black squad never did anything on black organized crime , said one source. So for the last 13 years, while we've been watching Merlino and the newer groups like the Russians and the Chinese, nobody has been keeping track of black organized crime in this city.

While the police department's press office did not return a phone call seeking comment by press time, two law-enforcement sources -- one a current investigator -- watching the federal probe say many of those reputed black gangsters are walking the streets.

You see faces cropping up that were in our old files, says the active investigator. Former black gangsters now hanging around and working in City Hall. How did they get there?

As the Daily News noted in July, Johnson is at the twilight of his career right now, as he's retiring soon.

So why the need for all this grandstanding? Why is this Police Commissioner going out of his way to be remembered as a cheerleader for activists instead of an effective crime fighter? I would think that the focus right now would be on finding a successor with a plan to get tough on crime.

You'd almost think there are people who don't want crime fighting to be the function of the police department.

(As well as journalists who'd rather remain silent about things that make Philadelphia look ugly.)

MORE: Speaking of the hopelessly intractable support for gun control in big cities, Glenn Reynolds post reminded me that Johnson's predecessor, Miami Police Chief Timoney is facing corruption charges. But it may just be that there's a "culture of corruption" which prevails among big city gun grabbers.

Notwithstanding Timoney's current problems in Miami, a lot of people around here were very sorry to see him leave Philly, and see his Police Commissioner stint as the good old days.

UPDATE (09/17/07): I can't believe it, but I actually read this in the Inquirer:

....don't say anything that would lead visitors to believe that what we have is anything less than "world class."